Milbury on D&H: Cooke a 'scumbag'

by: Jerry Spar on Wed, 02/09/2011 - 2:27pm

Mike Milbury of NESN and NBC Sports made his weekly appearance on the Dale & Holley show Wednesday to talk about the Bruins and the NHL.

B's coach Claude Julien announced at the morning skate that Tyler Seguin would be a healthy scratch for Wednesday night's game vs. the Canadiens. "Well, it's been a long time coming," Milbury said. "His level of involvement has been less than you would hope for. He's got a lot of things to learn. There was a lot of pressure on this kid coming into the season. And the expectations, as I think we all knew, and I stated it earlier, were a little unrealistic.

"There are some 18-year-olds, the rare exception, who can come in and be an impact player of some form or another. But most go through a fairly long growing phase. And that's what he's in. And that's what he's going to have to go through when he sits out and watches the game, and hopefully sees the kind of pace he needs to play at and sees the kind of physical involvement, the price he needs to pay, and I'm sure that's why Claude made this decision."

Asked for a particular criticism on Seguin's game, Milbury said: "I think he's way too comfortable. I'm not talking about being a Shawn Thornton fighter or a [Brad] Marchand-type hitter, but he's got to get involved physically. He's got to scrum for loose pucks, he's got to brush a body on the way by. Right now, he's a circler. He circles forward and he circles back. There's got to be a little more stop-and-go to his game and a little more determination."

Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli acknowledged Tuesday that it's likely the Bruins will make a move in an effort to bolster the roster following the loss of Marc Savard. Milbury is not surprised. "If the Bruins feel that they're in the position to take a swing at a Stanley Cup, then much like Chicago last year, they have to throw everything at it," he said.

The other big Bruins news of the past week was Danielle Paille's four-game suspension for his hit on Dallas' Raymond Sawada on Thursday. Following the game, Andrew Ference spoke out about the hit. Milbury was among those who criticized Ference for speaking out against a teammate.

"I agree with Andrew Ference. This was a play that was worthy of suspension, and this was something that the league quickly acted on and did suspend the player," Milbury said, adding that he was surprised Paille didn't get more than four games. "I don't have any trouble with him going to Danny Paille and discussing the issue with him. I don't have any trouble going to his player rep and discussing it with him. I don't have any trouble having a discussion in the locker room with any of those guys or the coaches or the manager. But it's not his role, it's just not his role to pontificate about this thing in the media."

Added Milbury: "It just didn't need it. Where does it stop? Do you start talking about guys making mistakes on a faceoff? Were they out of position on a line rush? Did they miss a shot? 'Oh, jeez, that guy should have scored on that one. If he's sharper, if he wasn't out till 10 o'clock last night, we might have had a goal scored there.' It's unnecessary. It's totally unnecessary."

Penguins forward Matt Cooke reportedly received a four-game suspension for his hit Tuesday on Columbus' Fedor Tyutin. "He's crossing the line way too often," Milbury said. "It's time to give this guy a wakeup call before he really does hurt someone else."

Added Milbury: "You would think that after the Savard incident that Cooke would temper his enthusiasm, for lack of a better description. But it hasn't seemed to deter him at all. ... He's a little bit of a scumbag. And now he's turning out to be more than that. He won't change, and that's trouble."